03301 Ark-Vol 2 September 5 2pm DL

THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982

Mt Ophir Cellars Burgoyne & Co., Rutherglen, Victoria ca 1900s. [All Saints Collection]

PB Burgoyne and Co was well established in London by 1904. They were trading as ‘Growers to the King’ by special warrant and specialised in Australian wine growers. Based at Downgate Street, London, they offered the wine trade a bewildering array of Australian wines, including Ruby Wines: Oomoo Burgundy, Harvest Burgundy, Branxton Cabernet Claret, Kangaroo Burgundy, Branxton Burgundy, Tintara, Mount Ophir Vineyard (grown on ferruginous soil), Singleton Hermitage, and very superior old Coomaree Cabinet Burgundy, and Amber Wines: White Harvest Burgundy, Oomoo Chablis, Chasselas, Singleton Riesling, Singleton Hermitage, Highercombe Amber, Tokay Imperatrice, Muscat of Alexandria, and very old superior Coomaree Amber Cabinet Riesling. As the Australian wine trade improved further in Great Britain, a new treaty known as the Entente Cordiale (1904) ushered in a new era of cooperation and friendship between Britain and France and their respective colonial aspirations. This relationship would endure and promote closer trade with French wine regions, especially Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. Nonetheless, Australian wine was increasingly enjoyed by the British middle class. The long arm of Peter Bond Burgoyne reached all corners of South Australia, Rutherglen, and the Hunter Valley’s wine industry. It was also firmly gripped onto the UK wine trade. On receiving hogsheads from Australia, PB Burgoyne assessed every barrel. Sometimes consignments were rejected and offered on behalf of the growers to auction. In one notable legal case in 1903, wine merchants Arthur Godfree & Co purchased bulk ‘Australian Red Wine’ from auctioneers W and T Restell and then marketed the wine as ‘Burgoyne’s Superior Australian Burgundy’. The wine was still stored in Burgoyne-branded hogsheads at the time of purchase. The judgement went against Arthur Godfree as ‘an injunction to restrain infringement of the Trademark and passing off’, but the penalty was only ‘the costs of the action up to and including the trial’. The Burgoyne brand was vigorously protected, whatever the outcome.